Marin County landmarks include buildings, properties and locations of
significance in the history of Marin County, located in the San Francisco Bay
area of northern California. A house, a sawmill and a mission all are listed in
this county's collection of historic, numbered points of interest. The list
offers a glimpse into the unique history of this region which enjoys beautiful
scenery and weather, much as it did during the era when the properties and
places listed below existed or were established. The list is compiled by
the State of California with most locations signified with plaques that include
the information below.
NO. 207 FIRST SAWMILL IN MARIN COUNTY - This mill was erected by John Reed about
1833-34 on Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio- 'the wood cutting place for the
Presidio'-present-day Mill Valley. Reed built the first house in Sausalito and
the first ferryboat to ply San Francisco Bay.
Location: Old Mill Park, Throckmorton and Cascade Dr, Mill Valley, plaque
located at NW corner of Blithedale Ave and Tower Dr
NO. 210 OLDEST HOUSE NORTH OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY - This house was built in 1776
by the father of Camillo Ynitia or Unitia, the last chief of the Olompali
Indians. The Indians were taught to make adobe bricks by Lieutenant Bodega and
his party while they were surveying and charting the harbor of San Francisco
Bay. The old adobe house is inside the house now on the site. (Burned in 1976.)
Location: Olompali State Historic Park, 8901 Redwood Hwy, State Hwy 101 (P.M.
24.8), 3.5 mi N of Novato
USGS Quadrangle Sheet Name: NOVATO
NO. 220 MISSION SAN RAFAEL ARCÁNGEL - The San Rafael Arcángel Mission, 20th in
the chain of the 21 California missions, was established in 1817 by the
Franciscan Order. After the 'decree of secularization' in 1834, the buildings
gradually fell into ruin. The mission was reconstructed on the original site in
1949.
Location: 5th Ave and A St, San Rafael, plaque is at NE corner Merrydale and
Southbound 101, San Pedro Rd offramp
NO. 221 SITE OF THE LIGHTER WHARF AT BOLINAS - This wharf was built in the early
1850s to load lumber on lighters to be floated out to the deeper water near the
channel, where it was transferred to seagoing vessels for shipment to San
Francisco.
Location: At N end of Bolinas Lagoon at jct of State Hwy 1 (P.M. 170) and Olema-Bolinas
Rd, 2 mi N of Bolinas
NO. 222 LIME KILNS - Tradition is that the lime kilns were built by Russian
stonemasons and worked by Indians during the Russian occupation of Sonoma
County, which began in the spring of 1812. The Russians probably used the lime
to whitewash their windmills, farm buildings, granaries, storehouses, and cattle
yards, to tan hides, and to manufacture brick and tile.
Location: 300 ft W of State Hwy 1 (P.M. 22.1), 4.2 mi S of Olema
NO. 529 ANGEL ISLAND - In 1775, the packet San Carlos, first known Spanish ship
to enter San Francisco Bay, anchored in this cove. While here, the commander,
Lieut. Juan Manual de Ayala, directed the first survey of the bay. This island,
which Ayala named Isla de los Angeles, has been a Mexican rancho, a U.S.
military post, a bay defense site, and a quarantine and immigration station.
Location: Hospital Cove, Angel Island State Park
NO. 552 PIONEER PAPER MILL - The first paper mill on the Pacific Coast was built
here in November 1856 by Samuel Penfield Taylor. Using water power and later
steam, it was replaced in 1884 by a larger steam-powered mill nearby. This mill,
closed by the depression of 1893, was destroyed by fire in 1915.
Location: 1.3 mi inside Samuel P. Taylor State Park, 18 mi W of Hwy 101 off Sir
Francis Drake Blvd, County Hwy A104 (P.M. 171), Lagunitas
NO. 630 ST. VINCENT'S SCHOOL FOR BOYS - In 1853, Timothy Murphy, Irish-born
pioneer of Marin County, gave 317 acres of land to Archbishop Alemany for
educational purposes. Here the Sisters of Charity in 1855 founded a school that,
as St. Vincent's School for Boys, has been maintained and enlarged by successive
archbishops of San Francisco.
Location: 0.7 mi E of Hwy 101 on St. Vincent Dr, 4 mi N of San Rafael
NO. 679 HOME OF LORD CHARLES SNOWDEN FAIRFAX - The home of 'Lord' Charles
Snowden Fairfax, pioneer and political leader of the 1850s, who served
California as an Assemblyman (1853), Speaker of Assembly (1854), and Clerk of
the State Supreme Court (1856). A descendant of Scottish barons of the Cameron
Fairfax family of Virginia, Fairfax was involved in the last of California's
historic political duels as host to the principals and friend of the two
antagonists.
Location: Marin Town and Country Club, one block S of intersection of Pastori
Ave and Belmont Ave, Fairfax
NO. 917 GREEN BRAE BRICK KILN - This brick kiln on the San Quentin Peninsula is
the only surviving structure of the Remillard Brick Company, once the largest
brick manufacturer on the Pacific Coast. During its 103 years of operation, its
bricks were used to rebuild Ghirardelli Square, the Palace Hotel, and other San
Francisco structures after the 1906 earthquake.
Location: 125 E Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Larkspur
NO. 922 OUTDOOR ART CLUB - The Outdoor Art Club was designed in 1904 by Bernard
Maybeck, internationally known American architect. Particularly notable for its
unusual roof truss system, the building exemplifies Maybeck's creative use of
natural materials. The Club, founded in 1902 by 35 Mill Valley women, is
dedicated to preserving the area's natural environment.
Location: 1 W Blithedale Ave at Throckmorton, Mill Valley
NO. 924 CHINA CAMP - One of the earliest, largest, and most productive Chinese
fishing villages in California, China Camp was in operation by 1870. The Chinese
immigrants and their descendants introduced the use of commercial netting to
catch bay shrimp off Point San Pedro. The shrimp were then dried and exported to
Chinese throughout the world. China Camp represents the last surviving Chinese
shrimp fishing village in California.
Location: At entrance to China Camp Village, China Camp State Park, on N San
Pedro Rd, 5.3 mi SE of State Hwy 101, Santa Venetia
USGS Quadrangle Sheet Name: CONWAY STAGE STATION
NO. 999 MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER - The Civic Center Complex was designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) near the end of his long career. The
administration Building was completed in 1962 and the Hall of Justice in 1970.
They are the only government buildings designed by the distinguished architect
that were ever actually constructed. The project fully embodied Wright's ideal
of organic architecture-a synthesis of buildings and landscape. In Wright's
words, the structures were planned to 'melt into the sunburnt hills.'
Location: Civic Center, San Rafael (plaque in storage, 3rd floor, County
Counsel's Office)
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places: NPS-91002055
